Lufis POV

“LUFIS!!! ARE YOU CRAZY!!! I HOPE YOU CAN SWIM, BECAUSE I AM NOT DRAGGING YOUR BODY OUT OF THIS!” Edward screamed as we plunged into the mist.

“PLEASE DON’T SAY THAT. I JUST REMEMBERED I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SWIM. I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DOGGY PADDLE, THOUGH.”

“DID YOU NOT THINK THIS THROUGH??!! THAT SEEMS LIKE AN IMPORTANT DETAIL TO ME!”

“DO YOU KNOW HOW TALL THIS WATERFALL IS? I FEEL LIKE WE HAVE BEEN FALLING FOR A WHILE-”

My feet hit the cold water, and in seconds I am submerged. The sudden chilling shock of the water saps me of my energy, stealing my breath. I kick out with my arms and legs desperately as I try to swim towards the surface. The dark water swirls around me, trapping me, depriving me of the vital oxygen I need. My entire body is throbbing, and my lungs feel as though they've been set on fire. Slowly, black begins to seep in at the edge of my vision. My head is pounding, and every cell in my body is screaming for oxygen. I keep fighting until I feel like my head is about to explode, but I have to take a breath. So I do. For some reason it doesn’t hurt like I thought it would; I’m not scared anymore, and it’s almost peaceful. I begin to fall. I fall further and further into the darkness, until it threatens to swallow me whole. Something grabs on to me, but I can’t register what it is. Then, ever so slowly, everything starts to fade away. Painfully, quietly. I didn't want to go out like this, but it was too hard to try to fight the dominating force of nature, so I simply let the darkness take over me.

*****************************************

I sit up suddenly, sputtering and coughing up water. I roll over onto my hands and knees as my body coughs up the water in my lungs. Pain spikes through me as I place pressure on my knee, but I ignore it. I slowly place my hand over my chest, feeling my heartbeat, struggling to calm down. With one final cough I roll back over onto my back, breathing heavily.

After lying there for a moment, I struggle to sit up, my wet clothes making it a little difficult to detach myself from the rocky ground. I glance down at my injury to see a bloody wound scraped into the flesh of my knee. It's slowly oozing out blood and there's a bluish-purple bruise forming around it. I lightly press my index finger against the center of the scrape and suck in a sharp breath as the pain spirals all across my body.

“Let me help you with that.” Edward mumbles as he gets up off the ground, his black hair splattered in wet clumps plastered to his head.

“Thanks for saving me.” I say quietly as he kneels next to me, pulling out a wet handkerchief to begin wrapping it around my wound.

“I only did what any friend would do. Think of it as recompense from when you saved me earlier.” I wince as the handkerchief turns a deep red, soaking up my blood.

“There you go. It is the best I can do right now. We need to get you back to the Sanctuary as soon as possible, so they can treat your wound before it gets infected.” I slowly stand up, biting my lip to push past the black spots that start to contour the sides of my vision.

“How long have we been down here?” I ask, trying to see past the mist, only seeing the branches and rocks that have been washed ashore.

Edward rises to his feet. “I wasn’t keeping count. I was preoccupied with resuscitating you.” He looked out towards the waterfall, before turning back to face me. “If I had to guess, I would say about five minutes.”

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“So,” I say as I lean against a tree as another wave of pain arcs through my body, “Do you know how to get back?”

Edward shakes his head. “The only way I see is to climb up is that mountain goat path, up the cliff over there.” He says, pointing towards the jagged rock face. “However, you are in no condition to climb that.” He lowered his head. “And I am not strong enough to carry you.”

I raise my hands, not sure quite what gesture to make. “It’s okay. I don’t think I could even carry you up that rock face even if I wasn’t injured.”

Edward lifted his head. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“I guess that means we will just have to wait for Elder to find us.”

“He should be down here, right? It will be a matter of time before he finds us.”

Edward frowned, suddenly deep in thought.

“Of course, I have no doubt that Elder could easily defeat the shizishou, we saw him do that earlier. So then . . .”

“Then what?”

“Why didn’t he instantly take out the shizishou that jumped him? We saw him take out the first one in the fraction of a millisecond. Why couldn’t he do that again?”

“You don’t mean-”

The sound of a growl sent the hairs on the back of my neck standing up in an instant.

From the mist came a pair of yellow eyes, like lanterns swaying from their wooden stilts. They moved forward with a slight sway, as if that of the eyes of a cat on the hunt.

“How the hell did it get down here!?” Edward spoke as he wildly looked about, searching for something.

The shizishou cub emerged from the mist, its paws taking delicate steps forward. It was evident that the beast did not like the rocky ground, but its intent on finishing off its playful prey was stronger than its irksome discomfort.

I quickly looked down, and picked up a stick from the ground, and waved it experimentally in the air, nodding approvingly at the pointed end.

“What in Evengia’s name are you doing, Lufis?” Edward shouted, still searching for something on the rocky ground.

“The only option left for me to take.” I shouted back as I charged the beast.

I brought the stick to my side, holding it out in front of me. Calling on the scraps of xetral left in my body, I coated the stick, hardening it into a makeshift spear.

The beast noticed my last ditched attempted effort and pounced. Crouching, I drove the stick in the dirt, pointing it upward. The stick pierced through the beast’s chest, catching it in mid-air, stopping its attack. Blood spurts everywhere, coating my face. But it is not enough. The beast raises its paw and swipes at me. I throw up my arm, trying to gather any xetral at all to form some kind of defense. Time seems to slow as I try to jump out of range, but my injured leg buckles, and the beast catches a glancing blow, sending me flying.

I manage to flip over somehow in mid-air, landing in a crouch. Warm blood flows down my right arm, soaking my already soaked shirt, and pain like never before surges through my body. My vision starts to go black, but I bite my lip to stop myself from blacking out. Fuck this. I may not win, but I am not going down without a fight.

I reach down with my left hand, grabbing a washed up soaken branch off the rocky ground. The shizishou has a half wooden branch sticking out of its chest, the other half still lodged in the dirt. Not much damage has been done seeing as I missed its vital organs, but if I draw out the fight either Elder Luidong will show up and kick its ass, or it will bleed to death and Edward can escape.

I stumble to my feet, blood freely dripping from my right arm, but I ignore it as I grasp the stick in both hands. The beast runs towards me, and I hold my ground, preparing to strike.

“JUST DIE!!!” I scream, calling upon the nonexistent xetral I have remaining inside of me, as my vision starts to go black.

Then, the world suddenly went white as everything seemed to explode. I shut my eyes from the glare, which lasted only a second.

Opening my eyes, I saw the mist around me had dispelled, displaying the canyon floor.

“Are you okay?” Edward said, rushing over to me. “What the hell just happened?”

He gave a startled screech as he noticed something on the ground. Looking down, I saw the shizishou. It was dead, and not only that, the beast had been cut directly clean in two. Even more than the beast, the cliff wall behind the beast also had somehow been cut cleanly in half.

“Did you do that Edward?” I asked, collapsing to the ground.

“Not me.” Edward said as he tore off pieces of his pants to bandage my arm. “And Elder isn’t here. So that only leaves you. Was that some secret Lantideniz hero technique?”

Suddenly, everything made sense as the pieces came together in my head. I grimaced as Edward tightened the wrapping on my arm.

“It seems it is impossible for me to try and deny the destiny I never wanted.” I murmur as my vision darkens.

“What do you mean?” Edward said as he desperately administered as much first aid as he could.

“It seems I have indeed inherited the power of Roland Lantideniz.” I whisper before blacking out.